DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
P R E S S   R E L E A S E

www.dfa.gov.ph                                                       2330 Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Philippines                                        Tel. No. 834-4000
 

SFA-AGR-797-07                                                                                                                                      24 OCT 2007

 

FILIPINO DIPLOMAT ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF IMO MARITIME SAFETY COMMITTEE      

 

24 October 2007 – The Philippine Embassy in London reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that First Secretary and Consul Neil Ferrer was elected Chairman of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) for 2007 and 2008, at elections held during MSC’s 83rd session in Copenhagen on 3 -12 October 2007.

IMO is a United Nations agency with 167 member states  tasked to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping. The Maritime Safety Committee is IMO’s highest technical body dealing with maritime safety and security-related matters.

Mr. Ferrer is the first Asian to be elected IMO/MSC Chairman since IMO’s inception in January 1959. Under Mr. Ferrer’s leadership, the MSC has approved important measures to ensure the timely implementation of the long-range identification and tracking system for ships, and has adopted vital amendments to the 1974 Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention and its 1988 Protocol. The Committee also approved a number of important measures relating to the enhancement of maritime security and safety of navigation.

Since 2003, Mr. Ferrer has been serving as Alternate Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the IMO. In 2004, he was elected to the post of MSC Vice-Chairman, and re-elected in 2005 and 2006. Following the untimely death of Russia’s I. Ponomarev, MSC’s Chairman for 2006, Consul Ferrer presided as Acting Chairman of the Committee’s 82nd session, which was held from 29 November to 08 December 2006 in Istanbul. He was also elected Chairman of the 19th Extraordinary Session of the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO) Assembly held in London in March 2007.    

Philippine Ambassador Edgardo Espiritu cited Mr. Ferrer’s election and IMO/MSC stewardship as a great honor for the Philippines.

Over 800 delegates participated in  MSC’s 83rd session. The Philippine delegation was composed of Undersecretary Luzviminda Padilla of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippine Coast Guard Captain Rodolfo Isorena, Philippine Labor Attache to Madrid Ramon Tionloc, Jr., and Mr. Eustacio Nimrod Enriquez of DOLE’s Maritime Office. END.

 

/allan

 

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